A heterosexual couple who wanted to enter into a civil partnership have lost their case. Rebecca Steinfeld, 34, and Charles Keidan, 39 were seeking a judicial review of the law but this was refused by the judge, Mrs Justice Andrews. The couple have been together for over five years and have an eight-month-old baby.

According to statistics from the Office for National Statistic, cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family type in the UK. The 2014 study showed that cohabiting families grew by almost 30% between 2004 and 2014.

A recent survey conducted in America has found that couples average three arguments a month about financial issues, and that three in ten adults who are married or living with a partner admit to potentially deceitful behaviour about money.

A recent survey has found that most people turn to their partners for emotional support in times of need. Data from Understanding Society, a study of 40,000 UK households, found that nine out of ten people who were married or cohabiting would talk to their partner about their worries when a problem crops up.

The Office for National Statistics has published a bulletin presenting annual statistics on family and household structure in the UK. A family is a married, civil partnered or cohabiting couple with or without children, or a lone parent with at least one child. Children may be dependent or non-dependent. Types of family include married couple families, cohabiting couple families and lone parent families.